The Emirati model is pluralism by grant rather than by right. Congregations do not acquire land or build as of right; a ruler allocates a plot, and the community builds on it. The Shiva and Krishna temples in the Bur Dubai souk go back to the mid twentieth century and served the merchant community; the Guru Nanak Darbar gurdwara opened in Jebel Ali in 2012 and is among the largest in the region; the BAPS Hindu Mandir at Abu Mureikhah, built in traditional carved stone, opened in 2024 on land given by the ruler of Abu Dhabi.
The most deliberate statement is the Abrahamic Family House on Saadiyat Island, opened in 2023: a mosque, a church and a synagogue of identical cubic proportions on a shared podium, arising from the Document on Human Fraternity signed in Abu Dhabi in 2019 by Pope Francis and Ahmed el Tayeb, Grand Imam of al Azhar, on the first papal visit to the Arabian peninsula. Its synagogue is the first purpose built one in the region in generations, and it followed the Abraham Accords of 2020. The limits are equally clear.
Proselytising Muslims is a criminal offence, criticism of Islam falls under law on contempt of religion, conversion from Islam has no legal route, and Sharia governs personal status for Muslims. Recognition is extended to communities, not enforced as an individual right, and what is granted can in principle be withheld.